Siena Update

As much as I would like to take credit for yesterday's blog post, that was Shayne who updated yesterday. This is mom and I will give a brief update on where we are at now. My apologies for this jumbled up description of what is going on. I am trying to keep Little Miss from pulling off any cords while I write this.

Siena is at Children's Hospital where she was admitted by our Dr's office through their direct care. This basically means as I understand it that Children's HAD to admit Siena based on what our Dr's office had observed and once here, all orders need to be discussed & approved by them.

This all started out when we went to Siena's 12 month appt on Tuesday. We went in and I really just thought Siena had a really bad cold that had wiped her out. After our Dr's examamination she was concerned and we were sent to Children's ER via ambulance to receive a chest x-ray and to be evaluated and treated. We went via ambulance because of the bad road conditions and doomsday forecast. After being checked out we were sent home with the diagnosis of RSV induced bronchiolitis. We were told to follow-up with our Dr office in 2 days or on Wed if we were concerned. Our original Dr that saw her on Tuesday was going to be out of town on Thursday and Friday and really Siena was still still pretty listless and miserabe and breathing incredibly fast so we went back on Wednesday to our Dr. The Dr was happy that her fever from the day before was gone but still concerned about the breathing. She was really surprised that Children's didn't admit her..... apparently they see tons of bronchiolitis cases this time of the year. Our Dr did a swab to confirm that Siena has RSV. She wanted to be sure that RSV was what she had. Our Dr went over all of the things we could do with her to help her feel better.... nose suction, humidifier, etc. She told us to come back Thursday if her temp came back and had another Dr check her out so she would be able to have a baseline if we were back in the office while she was out of town.

Yesterday her temp was back up and Siena was still miserable, listless, coughing & breathing extremely fast. We went to our Drs office where they then sent us to Children's as a direct admit...... so they had to take us and here we are. We spent sometime in the triage unit, then up the 3rd floor, an now we are on the 5th floor which is the respiratory floor. Siena has an IV where she is receiving fluids. Yesterday they put her on oxygen. She can not have food or drinks while her breathing is about 45 or 50 breaths/minute. When we came in they were at 93, while on oxygen they had dropped down to the high 30s at one point (I think I heard 28-40 are normal for her age). Now she is off oxygen and they are in the 50s & 60s.

Yesterday she only slept for a minute at a time in between all the poking & prodding. Once she settled down last night she actually rested semi comfortably and today she slept for quite awhile. She has moments of alertness like she wants to get up and play and then about 2 seconds later she plops hr head back down. Right now she is actually sitting up, looking at the balloons that Kroger delivered to her (they brought valentine balloons for all the kids). It is fantastic to see her sitting up and somewhat aware of her surroundings. The nurse just came in and Siena was pointing at her and trying to take off her mask. A very good sign.

Shayne is at the house with the boys & my parents right now but when he returns he will be very excited to see the progress she has made. She isn't back to her old self yet, but she seems to be on the mend. Last night she was close to getting admitted into the ICU so the Dr said that they will not be too quick to release her but they also don't want to keep her longer than they need to for fear of her catching something else while she is here. She definitely needs to be able to take a bottle so right now we are just waiting for her breathing to slow down enough for that. We will be here at least till tomorrow.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. I will try to keep this updated as best I can. The phone reception in the hospital is very spotty so I may or may not be getting calls at any given time.